Be Gentle – 2

If you put aside your material wealth and you accept that material wealth can never conquer Krishna, the value of Krishna increases in our lives. If we understand that it does not matter what we are giving Krishna but it matters, how we are giving it to Krishna, then the value of Krishna increases. So namah akinchana vittaaya is obeisances that we are paying to the lotus feet of Lord Krishna to make us remember that it is not material acquisitions that will bring us Krishna. The only thing that will give us Krishna is pure devotional service that Rukmini mata displayed. That is the source of attraction. That is how Krishna’s value in our life will increase.

In our lives, we place so much priority for so many things. When we plan our day, reading Bhagavatam becomes last. Very often, Maharaj said, we plan our day in such a way that everything finishes first and then if we have a bit of time, we start Bhagavatam. This is how we live our lives. We force ourselves to chant in the morning, not because we have our priority that chanting is first but because everyone has told us that we have to chant in the morning. Therefore we must chant and if everyone is chanting and we are not chanting, it does not look very good. So for name and fame, we come for programs. For name and fame, we use the value of Krishna. This is the reason why we cannot have attraction for Krishna.

If you want to have attraction for Krishna, it starts by being Krishna matih. We must first be attentive to Krishna. Rukmini mata was attentive to the value of Krishna. Therefore she was advanced in devotional service. So when we are Krishna matih, then we become Krishna ratih – then we become genuinely attracted to Krishna, then Krishna gatih comes. So after matih, there is ratih and after ratih there is destination and that is Krishna gatih.

So this is the first point we remember. Srila Prabhupada quotes the story of Sanatana Goswami in the purport to this verse. Sanatana Goswami had a beautiful touch stone and one man wanted this touch stone badly. So Srila Prabhupada writes in the purport that he goes to the Goswami and asks where is the most valuable thing that you have? Sanatana Goswami says “It is in the rubbish bin somewhere here. You can take it.” So he runs after it and after taking it, he is going to go away, but luckily he is a bit intelligent. He asks a question, if this is such a precious thing, why is it in the rubbish bin? So he runs after the Goswami again and says, “How come you are giving this freely?” We all know that in material world, that which is valuable is never free. Isn’t it true and in the spiritual world, that which is valuable is also not free. It is not cheap. Krishna is not cheap. Maharaj says, “Krishna may be free, but He is not cheap. He may be available to every one but that does not make Him cheap.” So the Goswami replies very wonderfully to that man and he says, “This is the least valuable of things because it will bring you only material advancement but it cannot buy you spirit. It cannot bring you spiritual advancement. So that is why I threw it in the rubbish bin.” So the man says what is more valuable than this chintaamani? Sanatana Goswami says, “the real chintaamani is harinaama chintaamani.” It is the holy name that is more valuable and the man asked where is this holy name and the Goswami says, “it is on your tongue and it is in your heart. It has never left you. All you have to do is chant.”

“The Lord continued: My dear mother, devotees who receive such transcendental opulences are never bereft of them; neither weapons nor the change of time can destroy such opulences. Because the devotees accept Me as their friend, their relative, their son, preceptor, benefactor and Supreme Deity, they cannot be deprived of their possessions at any time.“

The devotees of the Lord are never bereft of transcendental opulence. This is the opposite of material opulence. The devotees of the Lord have wealth. They also have bank balance, they have the interest and safety deposit but everything that is in the safety deposit is bhakti. That is the real transcendental opulence. Kapila deva guarantees his mother Devahuti that this transcendental opulence, nothing can take it away from us. Every sari that you have owned, every dhoti you have owned, you will have to throw away. Every piece of valuable wealth you have, you can never take with you. No matter how many properties are in your name, your name will have to go when you die. The properties do not follow your name. Infact Bhagavatam and shastras tell us even at the funeral pyre, even our body cannot follow the soul. This body which we have invested so heavily, which we have taken good care of by spraying so much things to decorate it, this body by which we judge the world, by which we live in this world, cannot accompany us at the point of death. So whose property is this body?

The devotee makes this body the property of Krishna and in doing so, he becomes materially impoverished in the sense that he renounces. Whatever comes to him, he uses for Krishna, and in renouncing, he becomes materially impoverished. So the meaning of materially impoverished, is not that I become poor, but it is that, you have converted it into transcendental opulence. So no amount of time and no kind of weapon can affect this bhakti. Once you have bhakti for Krishna, it is your stock. It can’t be taken by anyone. It can’t be destroyed by anything. Why? Lord Krishna guarantees in Bhagavad Gita 9.22

“But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form—to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have.”

Krishna guarantees that those devotees who are cent percent with Me in bhakti, that is the qualification. The result of that is whatever you have, He preserves. You do not have to worry. We do not lose the house. By having programs in the house, you do not lose the house. By spending money for Krishna in the temple, we do not lose the money. In fact Krishna preserves what you have and on top of that, He gives what you lack. So what do we lack? We lack nothing as devotees and even if we lack something, Maharaj always says, in the first place, what did you have? As it is, we came here with nothing. No baby was born with clothes. No baby was born smiling and no mother was smiling when the baby was born either. Only the husband was famously smiling because he has no idea what the child and the mother went through. But the point is, at the end of the day, whatever we have cannot go with us. So Maharaj says, in between this birth and death, you be in station consciousness, before you are in Krishna consciousness. Just think you are in the station waiting. You are in the waiting room. Waiting room consciousness is necessary to understand Krishna is akinchana vittaaya. You and I may be standing on the platform. We are waiting. I am going to Rajkot, you are going to Dwaraka. We talk for a while but after we talk, when the train comes, nobody says, let us continue the conversation and forget the train. No. never do we do that. What do we do? We only end up getting into the train and leaving.

Maharaj once told me about a person who was in a bus and was talking to a lady, while waiting to take another bus. Then that person decided not to take that bus because he fell in love with the lady he was talking with. And after talking to her in the bus for two hours, he got married to her just like that. They met on the coach. She was singing very sweetly and he became mesmerized by her singing. So he thought that she is the right person for him after two hours in the bus and they decided to get married. After two years, they divorced. So when they came to Maharaj, they were crying and Maharaj told them, “Why were you not in waiting room consciousness? He was supposed to take another bus. So he was supposed to move on and because he held back he got stuck.” Maharaj said, “In the same way, when we are waiting in the waiting room for the train, do not waste time. For a while we may talk, when the train comes, we leave. That is Krishna consciousness.”

For a while, the property is ours but we must be ready to leave it and if you are not ready, Krishna forces us to leave it. He puts us in so much misery that you will be praying for the day when you will give up this property. This is akinchana vittaaya.

Devaki prabhuji went on to explain the second point that is, “nivrtta guna vrttaye” and the transcription of the same shall be offered in the next mail, Krishna willing.

Thank you very much,
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
Vaijayanti mala devi dasi,
Chennai.